New chair for EuroNatur’s Presiding Committee

Radolfzell. The year 2020 starts with news in the honorary Presiding Committee of the EuroNatur Foundation: Prof. Dr. Thomas Potthast takes over the office of president from Christel Schroeder. He will be supported by Dr. Anna-Katharina Wöbse, the new vice-president.

Dr. Thomas Potthast is Professor for Ethics, Theory and History of Biological Sciences at the University of Tübingen and head of the university’s Centre for Ethics (IZEW). His main topics range from the philosophy of nature and the values of biodiversity to ethical questions in the field of agriculture and food. He has been a member of EuroNatur’s Presiding Committee since December 2014, acting as the Vice-President since 2017, and has now been elected to head the committee. “The great motto of the foundation, ‘Connecting nature and people’, and particularly the pan-European, transnational perspective convinced me from the very beginning. Nature conservation can only work if, firstly, it is based on expert knowledge, secondly, government action and rule of law are guaranteed, and thirdly, if a committed civil society pushes the economically powerful – that is exactly what EuroNatur and its great partner organisations do. I look very much forward to being involved in this important work as president.”

Dr. Anna-Katharina Wöbse has been a member of EuroNatur’s Presiding Committee since 2017 and is the new Vice-President since the beginning of the year. The environmental historian works as a freelance curator and publicist as well as a research associate at the Department for Didactics of Biology at the University of Gießen. The focus of her research is on conservation history and environmental diplomacy. This fits very well with her new honorary position: “EuroNatur has found a convincing way to develop something like international environmental relations in Europe. Nature conservation and environmental protection are practised here as part of a European solidarity that is taken for granted. I consider it my role to support those active and serve as a loudspeaker so they can be heard,” says Dr. Anna-Katharina Wöbse.

EuroNatur would like to express its heartfelt thanks to Christel Schroeder, who in eight committed and forward-looking years as President has had a decisive influence on the positive development of the Foundation. For 20 years she was a member of the Presiding Committee, enriching it with her expertise in nature conservation policy as well as her power of judgement, her strategic vision and her empathy.

For further information:
Christian Stielow, Mail: christian.stielow(at)euronatur.org, Phone: +49 7732 - 92 72 15